Andrea’s Rain Dumps 5 Inches on LI, Crushes Records

A pounding rain drenched Long Island Friday night during a record-breaking storm, which dropped upwards of 5 inches of rain and flooded areas across Nassau and Suffolk counties, meteorologists said.

Lido Beach, Hicksville, Wantagh and Plainview in Nassau County all saw more than 5 inches of rain Friday night during the storm, which came just in time for Friday’s evening commute.

At least eight areas in Suffolk County—from Islip to Medford—were hit with more than 4 inches of rain, the Upton-based National Weather Service said.

“The normal or average rainfall for Islip for the whole month of June is 4.1 [inches],” said National Weather Service Meteorologist Tim Morrin. The storm “basically surpassed a months worth of rain in 24 and 36 hours,” he added.

Morrin noted that the storm broke records at all of the weather service’s tracking centers on Long Island. In Islip, where the previous record high was 1.27 inches, the National Weather Service reported 4.7 inches on Friday.

“[The storm] obliterated the record,” he said.

The storm, which came as Tropical Storm Andrea was churning up the East Coast, flooded areas across LI, shutting down parts of local roads and major highways.

There have been reports of cars trapped in flood water and local roads drenched in up to 2 feet of water.

Twenty to 30 cars had water up to their hoods at the Wyandanch Long Island Rail Road parking lot, Morrin noted. The NWS also received reports of one foot of flowing water at Walnut Street in Long Beach.

Althouse Avenue in East Rockaway was completely submerged in one foot of flowing water, the NWS said.

“The common theme is rapid runoff and rapid flooding from the rain we saw,” Morrin added.

Saturday’s forecast is calling for mostly cloudy skies with a high near 77 and mostly sunny skies are expected for Sunday, forecasters said.

Rashed Mian has been covering local news for the Long Island Press since 2011. He graduated from Hofstra University in 2010 where he studied print journalism. Rashed, the staff's multimedia reporter, covers daily news for the web, shoots/edits feature videos and writes about civil liberties. He loves Afghan food and sports. Rashed is also a caffeine freak. Email: rmian@longislandpress.com. Twitter: rashedmian